Sunday November 8, 2009
Back-up bowlers strike silver and bronze in Vietnam
By SHAMSHUL FITRI
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s gold medal drought in the Asian Indoor Games bowling competition continued when the boys’ and girls’ teams could only bag the silver and bronze medals respectively in Vietnam yesterday.
The boys’ quartet of Kang Bo Long, Rodson Tong, Kelvin Keong and Mohd Syafiq Ridhwan Abdul Malek lost 788-829 to the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) team of Hussain Nasir, Sayed Ibrahim, Shaker Ali and Naif Obaq in the final.
The Malaysians fired lines of 217-193-180-198 against the 213-203-204-209 of the UAE, who got past South Korea 845-719 in the semi-finals.
Malaysia made the final after downing Kuwait 773-764 in the other semi-final.
Well decorated: The national back-up bowling squad posing with the medals they won at the Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam In the girls’ competition, the national back-up team went down 770-867 to Japan in the semi-finals to settle for the bronze medal.
Fatin Syazliana Adi Nasution, Sharon Koh and Sin Li Jane fired lines of 218-210-207 to take the fight to the Japanese.
But Tengku Emanina Laily Tengku Zahri proved to be the weak link as she could only down 135 pins, paving the way for Japan to triumph with lines of 205-227-236-199.
“Emanina is still adapting to some changes in her game. As a result, she was a bit apprehensive when making her throws,” explained coach Ben Heng in a telephone interview from Vietnam.
“Overall, I think the girls performed satisfactorily to earn the bronze medal.”
Ben praised the national back-up boys for their fighting display, which saw them losing to the UAE by only 41 pins.
“Considering the team lost to the senior team of the UAE, it was quite an achievement. Except for Syafiq, the other boys are making their Games debut,” said Ben.
“They were a bit anxious against the experienced UAE team but they bowled well.”
With yesterday’s feat, the Malaysian bowling team’s haul of two silvers and two bronzes is better than their achievement at the Macau Asian Indoor Games two years ago.
In Macau, the national team could only manage a silver through Zatil Iman Abdul Ghani in the singles event and the girls’ bronze medal after losing to China in the team semi-finals.
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